World in conflict

Pick sides in World War 3 in a gritty FPS from the makers of Painkiller

With the Battlefield series going the World War I and II routes, there’s been a shortage of large-scale urban warfare games since 2013’s Battlefield 4. Since then, there’s been a massive emergence of the Battle Royale sub-genre, but nothing’s come quite close to the large scale frantic combat the Battlefield games have done so well. That is until World War 3.

World War 3 is an online-only first-person competitive shooter that – as the name suggests – takes place during a fictional World War 3. The game has no single-player campaign, and throws you right into multiplayer, where you have to figure out gameplay mechanics by trial and error. Throwing players into the deep end of the pool – much like Warframe – may immediately turn a lot of gamers off, but we recommend you stick with it because it really is a fun game.

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World War 3 may aspire to be like Battlefield, but it also seems greatly inspired by games like ArmA and Insurgency. Sure, you could run and gun to a certain extent, but bullets are far more deadly in this game than other shooters on the block. Maps in World War 3 are also massive, with a lot of buildings to manoeuvre through, so your best bet would be to move sensibly, or you risk getting obliterated by running around like a headless chicken in the open.

Large maps also mean your equipped weapon should be proficient at long to medium range as well as at up-close and personal skirmishes. In this respect,World War 3 is extremely flexible and offers a bucket load of weapon options as well as player customisation. Being an Early Access title, developer The Farm 51 wants you to get a feel for all the weapons, so they’re all unlocked from the get-go. You can change every single part of the weapon, from barrels, magazines, and sights to more cosmetic stuff like colours, prints and camos. Shooting feels like a less arcadey Battlefield, but sits in a very nice spot between run-and-gun and the more methodical pace of an ArmA. There is a huge assortment of modern day weapons to choose from, including SMGs, assault rifles, snipers, shotguns, rocket launchers, LMGs and more.

Besides a primary and secondary weapon, you can choose to support your team by equipping a med pack to heal teammates or an ammo box to replenish ammunition. The game has even taken a page from Call of Duty by introducing killstreaks or perks, of sorts. Earn a certain amount of points by killing enemies or capturing objectives and you’ll be able to call in an UAV that displays enemies on your mini map, or rain some serious fire down on an area courtesy of a hellfire missile.

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While we did enjoy our time with the game, it definitely has its fair share of issues. For one, the game is poorly optimised. On a fairly beefy gaming rig powered by a Zotac GTX 1070 GPU, we struggled to maintain consistent 60 FPS on a combination of medium to high settings. Shooting feels great, but movement feels clunky. Vaulting over objects can get glitchy and frustrating, especially if you get shot while trying to jump over a two-foot obstacle.

Load times into games are so long, and the very first time you load the game, you’ll be staring at that screen for a good five minutes. Spawns also don’t work as intended, and during our time with the game, we could never spawn on our squad leader. But even with all these issues, we really liked what The Farm 51 has going on here because its core gameplay is solid and it really does scratch that modern-day military shooter itch very well.

World War 3 is currently available as an Early Access game on Steam, which means it is still under development and so many of its issues will hopefully be ironed out before a final release. But even in its current state, it’s well worth checking out.

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